Today's News

The Los Alamos Democratic Party monthly will meet at 6 p.m. Feb. 12 at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos, building 5.

The guest speaker will be Pat Davis from ProgressNowNM.

ProgressNowNM is New Mexico’s largest progressive advocacy organization and helps to train candidates and activists statewide to run for office. As the executive director of ProgressNowNM, Davis traveled around the state talking to small groups of frustrated Democrats and progressives and got them involved in actions to fact-check conservative news and get trained to win elections.

For evidence of the Local Economic Development Act (LEDA)’s power to stimulate the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, New Mexico residents need look no further than the massive industrial building at 2600 Camino Entrada in Santa Fe.
The former home of CleanAIR Systems and Caterpillar Inc. is now the world headquarters for Meow Wolf Inc., a leader in the vibrant “experience economy” that expects to employ as many as 360 highly skilled workers over the next five years. Its genesis was a City of Santa Fe-backed LEDA loan and grant package that enabled the original owners to capitalize on their company’s rapid growth.

Infrastructure improvements like this building are what the proponents of LEDA envisioned 25 years ago when the law was passed: Allowing local governments to invest taxpayer dollars in promising private-sector businesses can bring jobs, skills training and permanent physical assets to New Mexico communities.

Most school buses, including New Mexico’s, are powered with diesel. The diesel fumes contain enough toxic substances to cause an identifiable health hazard to children (and others, especially the drivers) who are regularly exposed to the fumes.

Documentation is ample. Diesel exhaust has more than 40 toxic air contaminants, including nitrogen oxides and known or suspected cancer-causing substances, such as benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde.

Diesel soot from school buses has also been associated with reduced lung function and increased incidences of pneumonia in children, according to a 2015 study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. And New Mexico has a respiratory disease problem.

“Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in New Mexico, with an estimated 150,000 adults and 47,000 children currently having the disease,” said a report from the state Health Department. It notes that asthma contributes to reduced quality of life and health care costs.

SANTA FE (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez on Monday describing a House-approved budget as soft on crime in a push to increase salaries for State Police, corrections officers, prosecutors and public defenders.

Her comment came as Senate lawmakers weighed amendments to a $6.3 billion spending package for the coming fiscal year.

Disagreements over compensation for state law enforcement agencies boil down to less than $15 million — a fraction of the state general fund budget — but have emerged as a focal point of budgetary discord between the Republican governor in her final year in office and New Mexico’s Democrat-led Legislature.

The Legislature has until Feb. 15 to send the governor a spending bill, which can be vetoed line-by-line or entirely.

The House last week approved a 2 percent cost of living adjustment for all state employees, with an additional 4.5 percent increase for court personnel, state police, prison guards, parole officers and staff at district attorney offices.

The Martinez administration has said the plan doesn’t go far enough in boosting law enforcement-related salaries, particularly at the largest district attorney’s office that oversees Albuquerque, amid acute concerns about urban crime there.

SANTA FE — The Libertarian Party did not enter a candidate for governor of New Mexico as a primary-election deadline passed, complicating efforts to maintain major party status in November elections.

Libertarian Party activist and candidate for state Attorney General A. Blair Dunn said Tuesday that the party still has options open to protect its major-party status in fall elections.

The Secretary of State’s Office says the party must win 5 percent of the vote in a gubernatorial or presidential election to maintain major party status. Agency spokesman Joey Keefe says a Libertarian candidate for governor still can file as a write-in contender.

Libertarian candidates have ready access to the primary and general election ballot in New Mexico thanks to a strong showing in 2016 by failed presidential candidate Gary Johnson that provided major party status.

Libertarians have registered to run for U.S. Senate, two congressional seats, secretary of state and state land commissioner.

The Falcon Heavy rose from the same launch pad used by NASA nearly 50 years ago to send men to the moon. With liftoff, the Heavy became the most powerful rocket in use today, doubling the liftoff punch of its closest competitor.

The three boosters and 27 engines roared to life at Kennedy Space Center, as thousands watched from surrounding beaches, bridges and roads, jamming the highways in scenes unmatched since NASA’s last space shuttle flight. At SpaceX Mission Control in Southern California, employees screamed, whistled and raised pumped fists into the air as the launch commentators called off each milestone.

Two of the boosters— both recycled from previous launches — returned minutes later for simultaneous, side-by-side touchdowns on land at Cape Canaveral. Sonic booms rumbled across the region with the vertical landings. There was no immediate word on whether the third booster, brand new, made it onto an ocean platform 300 miles offshore.

The National Transportation Safety Board has found that pilot error was the cause of a fatal aviation accident that killed two Los Alamos National Laboratory co-workers at the Ohkay Owingeh Airport March 11, 2016.

The pilot did not have enough speed to get the lift under the plane’s wings needed to accomplish a turning maneuver near the airport, according to NTSB investigators.

This caused the plane to stall and crash, killing Karen Young,. 46, an engineer, and her passenger Thomas Spickermann, 53, a scientist at the lab.

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be the pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed while operating in the airport traffic pattern, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and experiencing an aerodynamic stall at a low altitude,” said NTSB Investigator Andrew Fox in an accident report issued a Jan. 23.

The toxicology results on Young came back negative for all illegal substances. Spickermann’s results came back with traces of blood pressure medication in his system.

SANTA FE — House lawmakers on Tuesday approved a plan to increase funding for early childhood education in New Mexico by distributing more money from a multibillion dollar state sovereign wealth fund.

The House voted 36-33 on Tuesday in favor of the constitutional amendment to increase annual distributions from the Land Grant Permanent Fund by 1 percent.

The measure now moves the Senate, where a similar measure stalled last year.

Supporters say a substantial increase in state spending is needed to improve and expand preschool education.

Critics say the plan risks drawing too much money each year from a fund seen as a trust for future generations. The fund receives royalties from oil and natural gas production on state trust land, while current distributions benefit public schools and hospitals.

Approval by the Legislature would set up a statewide vote in November. Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration is seeking more general fund spending for early childhood education but opposes greater investment withdrawals. Constitutional amendments do not require the governor’s signature.

Silas Morgan stepped into elite company Monday night when he was given the General Billy Mitchell Award in a ceremony held at Los Alamos County Airport.

Morgan, 15, a member of the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program, became one of only approximately 15 percent of CAP Cadets to achieve the award.

“It feels pretty good knowing it’s hard to get this award,” he said. “I had a lot of help from a lot of people in the squadron and I’m really thankful for that.”

The award, created in 1964, honors the late General Billy Mitchell, who was a pioneer in the field of aviation as well as an advocate of an independent air force for America.

The CAP is an auxiliary branch of the United States Air Force with three primary missions: Aerospace Education of the American people, Emergency Services and the Cadet Program.

The Cadet Program is for young people from 12 to 20 years of age. Those cadets, with support from the CAP Senior Members and the Air Force, take part in such programs as aerospace education, leadership, special activities, physical fitness and moral and ethical values through group and individual activities.

The bill, sponsored by Cisneros, is designed to preserve the millions of dollars the county and the state receives each year from the gross receipts tax the for-profit contractor that manages Los Alamos National Laboratory pays every year.

New Mexico’s tax code currently exempts non-profit organizations from paying a gross receipts tax. While a for-profit contractor presently runs the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the management contract is in transition, with the possibility that the new contractor could be a non-profit.

Cisneros, along with cosponsors State Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard (D-43) and Sen. Richard Martinez (D-5) want to make sure the millions of dollars the state and the county receives from the GRT tax continues.

Cisneros said the bill first came up last year when Sandia National Laboratory’s contract was up for bid.